Kyle is off gallabanting up nort' and left mugging duties to me. He chose a pretty boring day for me to do this.
The Brewers were off yesterday, so the top story today comes from their Double-A Huntsville affiliate, where five pitchers combined to no-hit Chatanooga on Thursday night. Of course, it was about as bad as you could imagine a no-hitter to be: The team combined to allow eleven walks. Jimmy Nelson started the game and allowed four walks in four innings. Dan Merklinger only secured two outs and allowed a run on four walks. La Cross native R.J. Seidel picked up the win after giving up two walks in 1.1 innings. Darren Byrd allowed one walk in two innings, and Brandon Kintzler closed it out with a clean inning. Here's the boxscore if you want to look into it further.
After the game, Media director Jill Stacic interviewed all five pitchers involved in the no-hitter. Jimmy Nelson and Mike Vassallo both have pictures from the game.
Elsewhere in the minors:
- Mitch Stetter has gone 18 consecutive appearances without allowing a run in Triple-A Nashville. He also has not given up a hit his last four outings.
- Wisconsin outfielder Chadwin Stang hit a home run for the Timber Rattlers yesterday, extending his hit streak to 17 games.
- Hiram Burgos was named the Brewers Minor League Pitcher of the Month for July while Khris Davis was named Minor League Hitter of the Month.
- Adam McCalvy checks in with new Brewers top prospect Jean Segura and looks at his hot start with his new organization.
- Tyler Thornburg had a great start in his first outing back with Triple-A. He went five three-hit innings while striking out seven hitters.
- Giancarlo Stanton is 22 years old and has 75 career major league home runs. Yesterday, he played in a rehab assignment against the High-A Brevard County Manatees. Stanton is younger than every single Manatee in the Brevard County box score during that game.
- For much more on the minors, be sure to check out morineko's Minor League Notes
Over at Cream City Cables, Nate Petrashek considers Ryan Braun's claim that he is not giving up on 2012 and looks at the odds of the Brewers getting back in contention.
Tom Haudricourt takes a look at Carlos Gomez' recent hot streak and how some slight changes in how he sets up at the plate seem to have made a world of difference .
In his latest fantasy baseball column, Matthew Berry looks at starting pitchers who have had the most leads blown by their bullpen. Lo and behold, Randy Wolf leads the league with eight potential wins blown by his bullpen. Second is John Lester with five while several pitchers are tied at four, including Marco Estrada.
In power rankings, Sports Illustrated has the Brewers at #17, same as last week. Meanwhile, Aramis Ramirez ranked ninth in the Hardball Times' August third-base rankings.
Also at the Hardball Times, Glenn DuPaul looks at the value each team is receiving from their highest-paid player. Only two teams are receiving positive value. Rickie Weeks, as the Brewers current highest paid player, does not rank very high.
Yesterday, Mike Trout was named the American League Player of the Month and Rookie of the Month. He is only the third player to achieve both league honors in the same month, joining Ryan Braun and Buster Posey as members of that club.
In former Brewers news, Zack Greinke and the Angels are reportedly not discussing a contract extension. That shouldn't come as much of a surprise as it has sounded all along like Greinke would like to test free agency.
Meanwhile, Let's Go Tribe! has quite an in-depth look at the career of Vinny Rottino, who was recently called up by the Indians to take Travis Hafner's roster spot while he is on paternity leave.
Around Baseball:
Astros: Acquired pitcher Garrett Mock from the Red Sox
Natonals: Activated outfielder Jayson Werth from the DL and placed pitcher Henry Rodriguez on the DL
Giants: Activated catcher Hector Sanchez from the DL and activated pitcher Shane Loux from the DL
Indians: Designated pitcher Derek Lowe for assignment.
Diamondbacks: Released outfielder Scott Podsednik two days after acquiring him from the Red Sox
Yesterday's most strange baseball news story may have been this: Several teams' Facebook pages were "hacked" and had strange updates added to their pages. For instance, the New York Yankees Facebook page reported that Derek Jeter would miss the rest of the season after choosing to undergo a sex realignment surgery. Meanwhile, the Padres Facebook reminded fans that "thought the handicapped are allowed to enjoy Padres games at PetCo Park, their presence is strongly discouraged." It was discovered later that the posts came from one "rogue administrator" of the pages.
Of course, the biggest baseball news might have been the reports that Phillies' starter Cliff Lee was placed on waivers. Lee is still owed $87.5 million over the next four years (which includes a $12.5 million buyout if a club does not pick up his $27.5 million club option). Still, Lee remains one of the best starters in the majors and it wouldn't be entirely surprising if someone were willing to take Lee's contract off the Phillies hands.
If you're curious about how the waiver process and August trades work, Twins SBNation blog Twinkie Town has a great primer on just that. The Brewers have a few players who could be traded during the August waivers trading period. Randy Wolf and Francisco Rodriguez are two of the more popular names thrown around.
Is everyone ready to go search through a bunch of old boxes? Thirty-seven century-old baseball cards that were found in an attic brought in a total of $566,132. Included in the collection were cards featuring Cy Young, Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner.
That's all I've got, unless you want to go golfing.